Ceausescu`s Tools: Misery Andtorment

December 31, 1989|By Howard Witt, Chicago Tribune.

BUCHAREST, ROMANIA — Not all of the killing in Romania was as obvious as the machine-gunning of peaceful demonstrators by the secret police. Former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu killed many more of his compatriots a little at a time.

There is the 45-year-old psychologist, banished from his profession and sentenced to a life of paranoia for refusing to attend Communist Party meetings. He and his wife are forced to live in an apartment smaller than many American kitchens, where they spend their days tapping at the thin walls searching for the listening devices they are certain must be planted there.

There is the 25-year-old mathematician denied access, like everyone else, to contemporary Western thought. To conduct his research, he has to travel two days by train each week to get to the one library in the country that has any Western mathematics journals. The newest one there is five years out of date.

And there is the 35-year-old engineer, whose wife had three abortions, two of which she performed herself, because the couple could not bear to bring any more children into the grim Orwellian world in which they lived.

The real violence done to this country goes far beyond the hundreds or thousands of civilians (no one may ever know exactly how many) murdered by Ceausescu`s secret police during the weeklong revolution. It goes beyond the buildings in the Palace Square destroyed during the fighting or the rural villages bulldozed on Ceausescu`s orders to forcibly modernize Romania.

The real violence was what Romania`s tormented citizens were forced to do to themselves.

``What Ceausescu tried to do was break down the links between people, all the things that make us human,`` said the psychologist, who like so many others still dreads having his name published for fear that the old days might yet return. ``He taught us not to trust each other, not to help each other. And we learned the lesson.``

The man made his comments in the street outside his apartment. He said he was sure his apartment was bugged.

Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, ruled Romania for 24 years before their ouster Dec. 22 and their execution by military firing squad on Christmas. But it was more than enough time for them to unravel the social fabric of what was already a tattered, backward country.

Romania under the Ceausescus seemed to be taken straight out of George Orwell`s ``1984,`` the classic novel of totalitarian repression. Copies of the book-illegal, of course-can be found in the homes of Bucharest intellectuals, and people savor the stories of how they managed to obtain it.

In the Ceausescus` Romania, abortion and birth control were strictly illegal. Couples without children had to pay a monthly penalty tax to the state. All women had to undergo periodic pregnancy checks so the police could make sure they delivered their babies.

``Ceausescu wanted to be the king of 30 million slaves, and he had only 22 million,`` the engineer said dryly.

Ceausescu decreed a ``scientific diet`` for his citizens that included 10 eggs and 2.2 pounds of meat per person per month. Then he compelled them to fight to achieve it, by exporting most of the country`s food production.

There was no going to the store in the next block if one store was out of something. People were authorized to shop only in a single store in their immediate neighborhood. On the rare occasions that Romanians traveled to other cities or towns, they had to bring their own food.

``Food was the main weapon Ceausescu used against us,`` the engineer said. ``People turned into animals trying to get food. There were fights over a piece of salami in the stores.``

Electricity was strictly rationed, as was gasoline. Police checked anyone who showed up at a service station, asking why the gas was needed and where the driver intended to go.

Applying for a passport to journey outside the country meant furnishing a list of every single relative, alive or dead, stretching back three generations. The list had to include the relatives` addresses, the better to harass and punish them if the passport applicant failed to return to Romania. In the case of dead relatives, the place of burial was required.

People were told where they could live. Many young professionals were barred from living in the major cities where they could practice.

Those unfortunate enough to work in Romania`s huge factories faced a perverted system of a different kind. They were required to meet impossible production quotas without enough raw materials or electricity to run the plants, and then were penalized for their failure.

Informers were planted in every neighborhood, often in every apartment building. They were paid to report the comings and goings of each resident and visitor.

All of Ceausescu`s bizarre and cruel policies, all of his impossible laws, are now supposed to be repealed, according to the new interim government set up to lead the country to free elections to be held in spring. But the damage will take years to repair.

There are no statistics available regarding the number of Romanians who may be suffering from mental illness as a result of the stresses they had to endure. And there are not many psychologists or psychiatrists they could possibly consult; Ceausescu long ago closed down the psychology departments at Romania`s universities.

Nor are there any statistics regarding alcoholism or suicide, two other common indicators of a troubled society. There is only anecdotal evidence that hints at the problem.